Oddfellows' Hall, Barton-upon-Humber

The hall was built in 1864 in Palazzo style with red brick and yellow-grey brick walls and a Welsh slate roof. It is a two storey building, the upper floor of which is divided into five bays on its long side and three on its narrow side - these bays are divided by articulated yellow-grey brick pilasters. The ground floor has four-pane segmented sash windows, the upper floor has paired semi-circular headed sash windows with a large eight-pane window in the centre of the long side. All the windows are below grey brick arches. It has a stepped red and blue brick cornice with overhanding eaves. The building was listed for "historic reasons as an unusually grand and architecturally pretentious friendly society hall".[1]

The hall was built in 1864 by the Good Design Lodge at a cost of £1,000. In around 1911 it was re-purposed as Barton's first cinema, the “Electric Picture Theatre”, and showed silent movies. Latterly it was used by a theatre company and in the 1930s as a roller skating Roller rink. During the Second World War it was used as a dance hall. After the war the large hall was divided into offices for the Ministry of Labour (United Kingdom) and other governmental departments, with a public library on the ground floor.[2]

The top half of the building, containing the hall, currently stands empty and the divided ground floor are private apartments. A blue plaque was erected on the building by the Barton Civic Society to highlight its former function.[3]

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  Oddfellows Hall from the corner of High Street and Queens Street
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  Oddfellows Hall, High Street side
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  Oddfellows Hall, Queens Street side
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  Queen's Street door detail
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  High Street door detail
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  Blue plaque